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Dashboard Guidelines

Use dashboards to display various widgets on a screen to provide an overview of what the product is doing and how much value it is making for the customer, as well as highlighting any errors or missed opportunities.

Dashboard principles

The dashboard answers these questions:

  • Am I getting a return on my marketing investment (ROI) through this product?
  • Is it working properly right now? Do I need to fix anything?
  • Am I using it to the best advantage? Are there any tips to help me improve? What features am I not using?
  • What is my potential reach with this product, and how many of my customers am I actually reaching?
  • What features are currently running?
  • What is my current top performer of the day (Dynamic Delighter)?

Best practices

Dashboards should:

  • Always be the landing page of a product.
  • Contain two symmetric columns: a full-width widget takes up both columns, and a half-width widget that takes up just one column.
  • Be arranged in a grid with each row featuring widgets of the same height.
  • Provide a way to users to rearrange widgets as they wish, and automatically save their settings.
  • Have a title that follows this naming convention: [Product Name] Dashboard
    • e.g. Predict Dashboard, Triggered Email Dashboard.
    • Use ‘Dashboard’ only for the main Dashboard.

Try to avoid:

  • Having a dashboard accessible only through a sub-menu.
  • Communicating information, meaning or context through the layout and positioning of the widgets. [See principle: A widget should be understandable on its own]
    • e.g. Try to avoid creating a widget that only makes sense if it’s at the bottom of the dashboard.
  • Creating a dashboard with 3 or more columns.
  • Creating a dashboard with asymmetric columns.
  • Putting widgets with uneven height next to each other.
  • Having a single half-width widget in the last row when having an odd number of widgets.
    • Consider making one of them into a full-width widget – only if it makes sense.
    • Consider omitting one of the widgets, if possible.
    • Consider merging two widgets, if possible.
    • Never invent unnecessary widgets just to fill space.
  • Having less than 4 widgets in a dashboard, so that the dashboard would not appear to be empty or half-complete.